How to Kickstart Your New Year With a Powerful Spending Fast

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How to Kickstart Your New Year With a Powerful Spending Fast

Hey everyone! Today I have a great guest post for you by Jenny from Good Life Better. If you're still looking for a resolution this year, why not start a spending fast? Jenny explains the process and shares her own spending fast below. Enjoy! ~M$M

Resolving to lose weight and be healthier may be the most common New Year’s Resolution, but tackling debt isn’t too far behind.

Based on this 2015 research by Nielsen, 1 in 4 people who make New Year’s Resolutions reported vowing to spend less and save more. If you are one of them, maybe you should consider a spending fast to kickstart the year.

What is a “Spending Fast”?

I don’t know who to credit with the idea of a spending fast, but the concept isn’t difficult to grasp: you identify a discretionary budget category that represents an area where you tend to overspend, and you cut it out for a particular period of time.

The logic is that, for this budget category, moderation isn’t working very well (if it was, you wouldn’t be going over budget) and so you eliminate it as an option completely.

I first came across this strategy of abstaining in Better than Before, Gretchen Rubin’s book about breaking bad habits and adopting good ones.

While it may seem counterintuitive, for some of us it is actually easier to eliminate something completely then it is to partake some of the time.

“When we Abstainers deprive ourselves totally, we conserve energy and will-power, because there are no decisions to make and no self-control to muster.” –Gretchen Rubin

This strategy means I make one decision and then I don’t have to make any additional decisions (I share more about the rules I live by here).

Identifying Your Achilles Heel

Ready to dig in? If so, the first step is to take a hard look at your spending habits and identify your Achilles heel.

For a lot of people, eating out is the biggest drain on their discretionary spending budget because it is just so darn easy to grab something on your way home from work or while you are out running errands.

Other culprits could be always buying the latest technology, new clothes for every occasion, last-minute weekend getaways, or the need to be front-row and center when your favorite band is in town.

Whatever it is, own it and be ready to live without it.

Doing Without

The next step is identifying the timeframe during which you will abstain (and don’t be a smartass about it).

If concerts are your weakness and you already know there are no artists coming to your city that you will want to see in January and February, setting those two months as your timeframe is pointless. Instead, pick a time frame that causes some discomfort.

If it helps, harness your competitive nature and/or stubbornness to motivate yourself. If calling it a 90-day challenge helps, that’s fine. The goal is to stretch yourself and figure out why you overspend in a certain category and what you can do about it.

The Fast Itself

The third step is to implement, implement, implement. Time may seem to slow down, but I promise the days, weeks, and months are still passing.

Depending on what you cut out, find other ways to fill the time. If you stop going out to dinner, check out some recipe books from your local library and have fun re-creating your favorites at home. No longer dashing off to NYC for the weekend? Explore your own city. You may even find that your local museums offer free admission one weekend each month.

Live and Learn

Once the fast ends, don’t just breathe a big sigh of relief and go back to spending mindlessly. Take some time for self-reflection to figure out what is going on that is causing you to overspend. Maybe it is as simple as you aren’t budgeting enough for something that is as essential to your happiness as breathing.

More likely, the reasons you are over-spending are much deeper. Ask yourself: what did you miss most? Least? Why is this such a crutch for you?

My Spending Fast

I stress self-reflection following a spending fast because I know firsthand how powerful they can be: from Memorial Day to Labor Day in 2016, I cut myself off from clothes shopping, which at the time was the biggest drain on my discretionary spending budget.

That spring, I had taken two trips that each required new clothes and shoes. As a result, my credit card balances were once again uncomfortably high. Knowing my closets were full of summer clothes already, I decided that for those three months, I couldn’t buy any new clothes, shoes or purses.

Did I succeed? Yes. I made one planned exception when the strap broke on my favorite pair of black sandals but other than that, not only did I stick with it but once Labor Day came around, I found it really hard to go back to spending like I had previously.

This is because of what I learned from the experience:

I shopped because I was bored or wanted to distract myself from other things going on in my life

I owned more clothing than one human could possibly need

My consumer debt was completely unnecessary—it was 100% about me living beyond my means and not, as I had been telling myself, a result of not earning enough

Prepare to Be Challenged

First, don’t put yourself in a position where failure is inevitable. If you pledge to not eat out, then pack your lunch, bring a snack, and go to the grocery store so you have food in the refrigerator. If you don’t do these things, then you probably aren’t that serious about the fast and need to rethink your commitment.

Second, identify strategies that will help you stick with it. I mention one above (distracting yourself). Another could be delay. It’s amazing how often waiting 15 minutes will resolve my desire for a snack. Use these strategies to your advantage!

Finally, don’t wait until you are in the moment to break your fast. Instead, negotiate planned exceptions with yourself in advance.

I noted above that during my spending fast I did buy one pair of black sandals to replace a pair on which the strap broke. Not only were these my favorite black sandals but they were a discontinued style so I knew that if I didn’t buy them right away, I wouldn’t be able to find them at a later date.

This was the kind of thought that went into that purchase and I encourage you to put a similar amount of thought into any exceptions you make during your fast.

Jenny is a younger GenX blogger on a mission to help women–especially single women–do what they need to do now to have an amazing retirement later. Learn more about her journey to build wealth, create an amazing career, and live a happier and healthier life at goodlifebetter.com, and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Questions for You:

1. Have you considered doing a spending fast?

2. What is holding you back?

3. If you have successfully implemented one in the past, what did you learn?

Comments

I really like this idea – I’m trying to do one for January of not going out to eat. It’s going to be a challenge for sure. We’ve already been invited out for Friday with some old coworkers of mine, and it’s always tough to tell them no.

The other one I’m trying to do is not buying just random stuff, at least for this month. My wife wants some new strap for her purse or something, but she definitely doesn’t need it – her current one is fine. She emailed me the link on Amazon and so now I play the waiting game and see if she forgets. 🙂

Not eating out is tough–a complete fast would be good but maybe you can reduce down to just one meal a week out, spending less than $50? Not buying random stuff is also a good goal! My bluetooth headphones are dying and I almost feel like I want them to fully break so I have an excuse to buy new ones. I am not touching the question about your wife’s purse strap. I will just diplomatically point out that what is random to you may not be random to her 🙂

I have heard of a similar style before where someone just didn’t spend ANY $$$ that wasn’t dedicated toward bills, groceries, and other necessities for an entire month! It’s funny when we reflect back and look at what we spend our money on in the past. We normally spend small amounts of money on little things when we’re bored, but they can compound up quickly over the course of a month!. When we have nothing else better to do, it’s easy to surf the web (Amazon), or take a drive to our favorite store/take-out food joint

Thanks for sharing this and I am going to take you up on this challenge! The only thing that is tough is I usually only spend my discretionary money on new personal finance books…Maybe I will cut the Chipotle for a month!

Books are a weakness for me too–I had to get out of the habit of checking the amazon kindle deal of the the day because I had way more books than I could ever read. Food was my biggest money suck. It pains me to think about how much I have spend on food over the years just because I wasn’t paying attention. Good luck cutting out the Chipotle!

I may end up doing something like this for eating out – although it only happens once or twice a month for me (mostly due to birthdays or special occasions!

Typically I’ve found it easier to go to the dinner because social life is important, but at the dinner only purchase something small and order water. I usually eat before too, so I’m not starving when I get there with all the food options!

That’s a great idea (eating before hand). I am not a drinker so that usually means I am spending way less than everyone else but I do love to order ice tea (even though some restaurants charge an enormous mark-up on it!).

When it comes to bad money habits, it’s just too easy to slip up if you just try to “cut back on eating out” or “not spend so much shopping”. I really like the idea of a spending fast because if you go 60-90 days you can actually rewire your brain and learn a new habit (e.g. cooking at home instead of eating out).

I’m going to take a good look at my budget this year and find an line item for a spending fast.

This is a really cool post. I’ve always thought of just completely cutting out a budget item, now glad to know there’s a name for it haha.

Like a lot of comments I see above, eating out is very difficult for me to moderate too. I love food and I love beer, and these two combined at a nice restaurant are a total drain. Definitely going to give this one a try. Thanks for sharing man!

I am not a drinker (a good burger is my weakness) but I am friends with a lot of beer drinkers and if you are like them, I have witnessed the pleasure they get out of trying out different brews. You could start with February–its a shorter month!

Eating out at restaurants is definitely a big money sucker. December is always hard with all the family and work social events that arise at that time of the year. Thankfully it seems to cool off in January so it helps to get the year off to a good start.

As other comments have said, making use of the free water that most places offer rather than buying a beer makes a big difference.

I typically do a pantry challenge in January. Where you see how little you can spend, while using up stuff you already have in your pantry. I do pretty well on that one saving about half the weekly budget for food.

Perhaps I’ll add in and try this for the next 2 months for quilting “needs” (its not the top fabric I need more of just the backing and batting). Unless I sell a quilt that needs to be finished than I’ll have to buy the finishing items.

I have a friend who has a weakness for wool–owns way more than she could ever knit–so I can see how quilting material would be something easy to stockpile. Have you ever heard of the charity Days for Girls? They accept good quality fabric scraps if you ever have any left overs.

My new year is kickstarted on the right track. I’m staying in Church seeking to tarry harder, writing more content, spending more time in the gym, eating healthier, and dressing better. All of which I’m humbled and grateful for. Everyday is anew day to begin again and do the transformation work.

I started off my year with a 100-Day Spending Fast. I have a ton of big expenses coming up, so it was necessary. Plus, after my recent divorce, I am still trying to get back on my feet. Spending Fasts really do make you think about how you spend your time and money!

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